What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Tonight I am making pizza. I will soon start on the bread in time to let yeast do its job ready for stretching, adding toppings*, baking and serving at 7pm.

With the pizza we will be having Kevin Judd’s Marlborough Greywacke Pinot Gris 2015

* tomato sauce made from tin of Italian plum tomatoes, chopped garlic, onion and orange pepper, sliced mushrooms, anchovies, black olives, capers and grins of black pepper and southern French dried herbs.

I have a friend who almost fits that description (claims he doesn't eat any vegetable spelled with more than four letters).

Well, depends how you call it. The friend's repertoire can include a lot of bean (navy, mung, lima, soy), pea, kale, bok choy (wins twice!), okra, leek, corn, taro, yam, cuke (see what I did there?), beet, tat soi (another double winner!). And I haven't even started stretching it. Not bad for a picky eater.

But at least he'll eat lettuce.

Almost twice over! (...it has 7 letters, just shy of 4 x 2...)

[Jenise]

The friend's repertoire can include a lot of bean (navy, mung, lima, soy), pea, kale, bok choy (wins twice!), okra, leek, corn, taro, yam, cuke (see what I did there?), beet, tat soi (another double winner!).

As you can suspect, he's never even heard of most of these. And while his protestations of only four letters are deliberately self-deprecating and funny, it's also true that it's pretty hard to get anything other than meat and potatoes into him.

To help prevent scurvy, increase good intestinal flora, and respond to the cold weather today, we had sauerkraut, sausages, mashed potatoes, and my latest bread. I even had a beer.

Tonight I’m making roast cauliflower steaks with crispy roasted okra and tarka dhal as sauce.

With it I’m trying Marks & Spencer’s new own label ‘House of Dreams’ Pinotage 2019, WO Swartland.

Here's one I made earlier

cauliflower-steak-meal.png

Dinner last night was gai sai takrai (Thai stir-fried chicken with lemongrass). It turned out particularly incendiary.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Tonight I’m making roast cauliflower steaks with crispy roasted okra and tarka dhal as sauce.

The cauliflower looks good and I like the idea of the dhal as sauce.


Last night I made stuffed pork chops. Very definitely a throwback kind of meal--not something I grew up with, and in fact the first time I ever made them I bought them pre-made from a butcher's counter. But in 2020 it's definitely an old fashioned food. I brined the chops in apple juice with a good dollop of dry white vermouth, then used a truffle and chestnut stuffing I'd made and frozen the leftovers of before Christmas. No sauce needed, but I did spill a panful of peas and carrots over the top. Quite attractive.

[Jenise]

Yesterday I made matzoh ball soup for lunch. The exquisite tenderness of those big tender dumplings luxuriating in a beautifully seasoned broth is pure joy. For dinner, we had fresh Icelandic cod, panko coated and baked crisp, with a bell pepper salad. Delicious. I bought the cod in Canada (but just ten miles from my house). Being able to buy Icelandic cod, vs. Alaskan, is one of the fun things about the duality of life on the border.

[Jenise]

On the stove right now: a beef bolognese for tomorrow. Marinating in Spanish spices: kurobata pork short ribs for grilling later and serving over a potato and green olive salad. And about to serve for lunch: avocado halves stuffed with langoustines and gigante beans on romaine chiffonade.

... a potato and green olive salad.

Say more, please.

[Jenise]

No recipe, Jeff, just a plan to combine potatoes with slivered green (not castelveltrano, but similar, fresh/salt brine/no vinegar) and dress them with oil and vinegar wherein maybe the oil and vinegar component comes from the marinade from a jar of Mama Lil's peppers. You probably don't know them, they're a west coast thing, but the flavor's unbelievable and like nothing else.

It's been quite a while, so I came up with a shrimp stir fry and basmati brown rice. The neat thing about stir fries is that you can throw in just about anything. Amongst other found items, I used sliced veges, peanuts, sliced cloud ears, shiitakes, water chestnuts, garlic, homegrown dried cayennes. Then I slightly thickened it with a cornstarch sauce made with oyster sauce, ponzu, and toasted sesame oil. Wish I had made 3x as much; I'm still a bit peckish.

[Jenise]

Larry, we call those dishes 'wokness'.

If I had had some wokness monster, I would have used that, too.

Tonight I'll be making Thai lemongrass meatballs.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, how delicious. I love lemongrass and I'm definitely guilty of not using it often enough (can't always find it when I do want it, either).

Tonight I'm making a dish called Kenyan Coconut Chicken.

Lemongrass is fairly easy to grow. Perhaps try that.

Lemongrass freezes well. The supermarket I shop at has a significant Asian clientele and has a wider variety and higher quality produce section than usual for New Hampshire as a result. They have lemongrass sporadically. Fortunately it freezes well. They sell lemongrass in bundles of four or five stalks. I peel the outer layer off the extra stalks and cut them into 3-4" lengths, then freeze them. That way there's no waste and lemongrass is always on hand. I do the same with galangal and Thai chiles. The only catch is that once you defrost, you must use the stuff that day or it will go off.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Brilliant!!!!! I'll do that. I actually do see lemongrass a lot--but only when I already have plans. Then when I decide I need it--nowhere to be found. I never considered freezing it.

Why is it that January flies by as an odd, jumbled-up "non-month"? That's how it seems for me these days, anyway. So: it's February, and it's Saturday, and after all the hot dry weather and bushfires, suddenly it's cool and raining.

The Francophile is putting together a photo-book, which he may produce multiples of for his upcoming bird photo exhibition, so I've hardly seen him all day. He's there at his desk, doing arcane things with layouts. So I'm on Dinner Duty.

What's simple? What's in the fridge?

We're having roasted chicken breasts, stuffed with dried tomato puree, roasted potatoes and shallots, and some steamed veg which I am about to set going on the stovetop. It's one of the Francophile's favourites, so I'm giving him a treat.

We're having roasted chicken breasts, stuffed with dried tomato puree, roasted potatoes and shallots, and some steamed veg which I am about to set going on the stovetop. It's one of the Francophile's favourites, so I'm giving him a treat.

Sounds good to me, too!

Tonight is going to be misc. leftovers; tomorrow will be bbq pork ribs.

Today, for my own Superbowl of cooking, I am making Julia's boeuf bourguignon. This takes a long time -- I'm in the middle of it now -- but I gotta say that is an incredible fond at the bottom of that pan!

I love boeuf bourguignon, and Julia's recipe for it is great. Last night I made Beijing meat sauce noodles. Tonight's dinner is leftover lemongrass meatballs.

-Paul W.